Are you a college student who is unsure about what to study? It’s important to consider what you find important. If you’re someone who wants to make a lasting, positive difference, you should consider social work. As a social worker, you work with different individuals to help them to succeed in society. Here are four ways social workers are making a difference in your community.
Working with marginalized individuals
As a social worker, many your clients are going to be people who might feel as though they’ve been completely shunned by society. This could include people with addiction problems and mental health issues, ex-convicts, impoverished people and children. While many in society might look down upon these people, as a social worker, you have the opportunity to build them up. By working with and advocating for them, you can help improve their confidence and overall self-worth.
Offering more perspectives
There’s an old adage that you can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. As a social worker, you will be walking countless miles in all sorts of shoes as you work with different cases and different people. If you are drawn to this field, you’ll quickly understand how learning from the experiences of others can really open your heart and make you understand just how difficult certain situations and environments can be.
Being a voice
Being a social worker is not something that only happens when you’re on the clock. It is sure to have an influence on the majority of your life. When you speak with people about their problems, you’re bound to notice trends and things that are affecting your community and its people. Great social workers are ones who see problems and become determined to eradicate them. It’s not an instantaneous process, but the first step in enacting change is speaking out.
The public sector encompasses a variety of improvement initiatives for everything from education to the environment. With all of the things clamoring for attention, sometimes simply being a voice for someone who is drowned out by the crowd can be the biggest difference you can make.
Letting people know someone cares
Those who feel burdened by problems like addiction and mental illness can feel like a burden themselves. They might think that their issues are too great and that they’ve gone too far to be saved. As a social worker, you can prove otherwise. You can give them a chance to be heard and realize that they can be the person they want to be.
Hopefully this has given you a good idea of how social workers are making a difference in your community. You might not be able to save the entire world, but by focusing on your community you can greatly better plenty of people’s lives. If this sounds like an appealing career path to you, consider looking into an online master of social work program or something similar. There’s no need to delay making your own impact on the community.
Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from Utah. She enjoys tennis and spending time with her family. Kara recommends looking into diplomacy programs for more information on degrees that can help save the world.
All views and opinions of guest authors are theirs alone and are not representative of the views of Petersons.com.
